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NASHVILLE,
Tenn. (TSU News Service) – Each year, according to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 4,000 infants
in the United States die suddenly of no immediate or obvious cause.
Nearly half of these unexpected deaths are due to Sudden Infant
Death Syndrome, the leading cause of all deaths among infants ages 1
to 12 months.

The numbers are
even higher for the African-American community according to the
Office of Minority Health, with the SIDS mortality rate nearly
twice that of non-Hispanic whites. Organizers at Tennessee State
University hope that with proper training and education, the numbers
will be reversed.

The University,
along with the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child
Health and Human Development, will offer a one-day Safe Infant
Sleep Training course to educate parents and other caregivers
about practices that can help reduce the risk of SIDS and other
sleep-related causes of infant death.

The Safe Infant
Sleep Training will take place Saturday, March 22 at the Avon
Williams campus and will, according to Dr. Stephanie Bailey, dean of
the College of Health Sciences, target primarily black males, who
take on a larger role as caregivers. It is also the first time the
campaign has been offered in Tennessee.

“The training is
open to everyone,” said Bailey. “But we are really focusing on the
role black males are now playing in the care of children. This
includes fathers, grandfathers, uncles, brothers and others who are
taking an active role in raising a child. The goal is to educate
this group of caregivers on reducing the risk of SIDS and ensuring a
safe sleep environment.”

She added that information on the
care of children has changed over the years.

“We are now
teaching that a safe sleep environment has no bumpers, pillows,
blankets or toys,” Bailey said. “This is different from what we were
taught years ago. By placing infants on their backs, SIDS rates have
declined overall by 50 percent across all racial and ethnic groups,
while the rate of back sleeping among infants has increased by 40
percent, which is a good thing. This training is the perfect
opportunity to get those messages out to caregivers.”

The Safe to
Sleep campaign was launched in September 2012 and expands on the
Back to Sleep campaign that was launched in 1994. The new
campaign expands upon the success of the previous campaign by
incorporating the most up-to-date recommendations from the American
Academy of Pediatrics on safe-infant-sleep practices.

According to Dr.
Stacy Scott, community liaison for NICHD, the training will educate
parents and caregivers on ways to help reduce the risk of SIDS and
other sleep-related causes of infant death, while continuing to
spread the messages of Safe Infant Sleep to all communities, while
tailoring outreach to those communities most affected by SIDS.

“We have been
providing training for women for a very long time,” said Scott. “But
now we see a need to tailor that training for African American males
because of the increased role they are playing in childrearing. This
‘Fatherhood’ initiative recognizes the importance of their role, and
will be the first of a series of training and outreach targeting
fathers specifically for SIDS training.”

The Safe Infant
Sleep Training will be held in two sessions. The first takes
place from 10 a.m. until noon and is geared for University students
who can earn service-learning credit by attending and sharing the
messages in the community.

The second
session, which is open to the community, will take place from 1
until 3 p.m.

“Unfortunately,
the SIDS rate in the Black community is higher as well as the
overall infant mortality rate,” added Bailey. “It’s our goal to
present this information to some of our alumni fraternities along
with community and church members, all in the hopes of spreading the
information to others in the community.”

Registration is
required to attend since space is limited. To register for this free
training, visit
http://bit.ly/TSUstudent or call 615.9637328.